Somewhere in the space between fantasy and a cosy evening hanging out with your friends is Dungeons & Dragons. And so, too, is 2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a good movie, much to my surprise. Now I'd be surprised if this thing doesn't become a smash hit.
Remember how good Marvel movies used to be? Remember that smile you had on your face after you saw Thor: Ragnarok? That's where this new Dungeons & Dragons movie will send you. But actually the closest comparison I can think of is The Princess Bride or possibly Your Highness (though Honor Among Thieves is much better than the latter).
It's a medieaval fantasy setting with loose fidelity to any kind of lore or canon, despite being based on the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The characters all feel very modern, indeed like a group of friends who meet regularly at a bar. Yet it's not so loose that you feel like nothing matters. As in The Princess Bride, the heart comes entirely from a real sense of the characters' concerns for and interests in each other. Which makes it a perfect adaptation of the D&D gaming experience.
This was what it was like playing D&D in high school. We kids were no medievalists, we didn't know how to talk like Chaucer. We were American teenagers improvising shit, often telling jokes along the way, but still with an earnest desire to advance the story and achieve our characters' goals. Although D&D started as groups of friends wanting to live in the world of Tolkien, the appeal of the series has had less and less to do with the Tolkien interest in world-building and more about providing an alternate context for the players to act out drama. So, while popular fantasy of the past twenty-five years or so, things like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter have depended upon creating a credible world with a sense of culture, history, and civilisations, Honor Among Thieves presents us with a hodgepodge. You won't be able to infer a character's ancestry from their skin colour, accent, or clothing. The cities and towns are free-wheeling blends of European, Middle Eastern, and Asian aesthetics applied with no rhyme or reason. I was able to have some fun when things like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, and the Underdark were name-checked but they bore little particular resemblance to the Forgotten Realms books I read or video games I played.
What I love is that the cast actually played Dungeons & Dragons in character before filming began. Which was absolutely the right thing to do and it comes through in the rapport they have on screen. More movies should do that. Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Sophia Lillis are a tight crew with truly entertaining chemistry, particularly Pine and Rodriguez. And Rodriguez is captivating in the fight scenes which are excellently choreographed. I only wish her costume were better.
Hugh Grant squeezes some delicious nuance from his typical pompous villain dialogue, making his character just complex enough to be interesting, and Daisy Head as his evil magic-user compatriot is gorgeous.
If you're looking for a good time, this movie's got it.
Twitter Sonnet #1683
We know the drink is acid 'cause its green.
She never shops for shells on Dragon Beach.
On fateful days her figure's clearly seen.
No drake but orcs to claim the lass would reach.
For us, the horses stumble off the track.
She slipped a desert wind beneath his coat.
And so a winter chill went up his back.
But nothing's changed the single sailor boat.
A destined hand forsook the kingly sword.
Portentous trees had choked the lonely way.
But sightless sisters sought the pond to ford.
Adrift amid a sea of green were they.
Chaotic stripes conform to easy nights.
A cam'ra deftly tracks the friendly fights.
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